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Monday, July 1, 2013

Kirby Krackle: Rock & Roll with a Twist

I know what you’re thinking. “Wait, what? A post about a band
called Kirby Krackle?” Bear with me folks, and allow me to explain.
Kirby Krackle is a nerd rock band that hails from Seattle, Washington
(home of such amazing musical acts as Heart, Pearl Jam, and
Soundgarden), and is a duo, Kyle Stevens and Jim Demonakis, the latter
of whom runs Emerald City Comic Con.
Also, you would think the
band itself was named after the videogame character Kirby (the pink
puffball), but there’s actually a comic book reference in the name.
There was a guy who worked with Stan Lee at Marvel Comics back when
Spider-Man, the X-Men, and Fantastic Four and the major Marvel
properties we all know and love were just beginning to be created by the
name of Jack Kirby, and that is where the Kirby in Kirby
Krackle came from.

But that’s enough background. Why would you
want to listen to Kirby Krackle (or KK for short)? Well, first of all
they’ve referenced a bunch of videogames in their songs! That’s why
you’re here, right? So, I am detailing (in one post) all the video game
references, both general and specific, in all the Kirby Krackle songs
released to date, along with a couple of other songs you might want to
check out, though they are not technically a video game band per se.

For
instance, on their self-titled debut album, KK have two songs that
reference videogames specifically: Back to the Beginning references
Mario Kart, and Teabagged references Halo (which might be a tad obvious
to some of you). Also, there are two songs that reference videogames
generally. “Up, Up, Down, Down” references the Konami Code... except
that they slip up and instead of the Konami Code ending in “B, A”, they
end the Konami Code in “Select, Start”... but that is the only video
game reference in that entire song, because it’s... not what you’d
consider a happy song, let me just say that. The other one is “Naked
Wii”... which is exactly what you think it’s about, you dirty-minded
freak.

Then, on their second album, “E For Everyone” (which is
itself a video game reference to the ESRB rating system), they have
songs based on Fallout 3 (Vault 101) and Mega Man (Take it From Me).
Then
they came out with their most recent full-length studio album, “Super
Powered Love”, last year. The only video game-referring song on there
is “In Another Castle”, which has the rather impressive contrast of
Mario fretting over (who else?) Princess Peach in the original Super
Mario Bros. and a really cutesy, upbeat-sounding ukulele backing track.

However,
if you just got all those songs, you wouldn’t get the flavor of the
sheer variety that Kirby Krackle offers in the stuff it references in
their various songs. So, here are a few you should check out:

“Ring
Capacity” is a Green Lantern ditty that is amazingly catchy with the
Green Lantern Oath as the bridge... AWESOME! (from the album “E for
Everyone”)

“Take On Me” is actually one of the better covers
I’ve heard of this 80s classic from one-hit wonder a-ha. (from the album
“Live in Seattle”)

“One More Episode” is a song that talks
about all those TV-on-DVD box sets and watching all the episodes
contained within till the break of dawn (released as its own single,
“One More Episode”)

“Web-Slinger/Hope-Bringer” is a single that
came out this past summer when the movie “Amazing Spider-Man” came out
in movie theatres everywhere, and it’s about Spider-Man and the
dichotomy he often seems to face about how he can be Spider-Man and
still have the time to work, go to school, and/or have a girlfriend.
(released as its own single)

“Roll Over” is a song about general
debauchery at the Bar at the End of the World, (which is a reference to
Neil Gaiman’s Sandman), and the chorus is to the tune of the nursery
song of the same name. (from “E for Everyone”)

“Dusty Cartridges
& Long Boxes” is the closest KK have ever come to writing a
full-blown geek love song. (from “E for Everyone”)

“Baby It’s
Cold Outside (Hoth Version)” is a song that KK released for free this
last holiday season that takes a Christmas song that has been done to
death and give it a nicely fun Star Wars spin, some role reversal, and
some much-needed freshness that many versions have lacked. They did
that song with The Doubleclicks, a female-fronted nerd rock group.

So,
if you like what you’ve seen in this post, you can check out their
website, kirbykracklemusic.com, and it’ll take you to their iTunes and
Amazon MP3 pages, as well as their Bandcamp page! So, check them out
for me, would you please?